Confidence is a Virtue
by viridiansky
Summary: Five months after the fall of the Organization and over a year since he learnt the truth behind Scotch's death, Furuya Rei can say with confidence that he still hates Akai Shuuichi from the bottom of his heart. Unfortunately, saying something with confidence doesn't make it true.


**A/N:**

 **This was meant to be more of a comedy fic than it ended up being in the end. I guess there's always the next fic :p**

 **Fair warning that this is a DC fic, so naturally there may be mentions of murder and/or suicide. But this is overall meant to be a lighthearted fic, so please take it as such~**

* * *

Confidence is a Virtue

* * *

If someone asked Furuya Rei what had pissed him off the most in the past few months, his mind would immediately wander to one day at work in the middle of the summer.

Nothing particularly notable happened that day. It had really been such a minor event.

All that happened was that he saw Akai Shuuichi and Agent Starling chatting before the meeting. All that happened was that Rei saw Akai let out a laugh, a loud, genuine laugh, at something Starling had said. All that happened was that Rei thought fleetingly how utterly happy Akai had seemed in that moment.

All that happened was that he spent the rest of the day in an absolutely terrible mood and not quite sure why.

Then he figured out why.

* * *

Here's the thing. Rei can say with confidence that he genuinely, from the bottom of whatever remains of his heart, hates Akai Shuuichi.

Rei hates Akai's stupid face, the way he's annoyingly good at sniping, how they actually work together quite well despite everything, and most of all, the fact that somewhere along the line, Rei has fallen for him like an idiot.

Because alright, yes, he doesn't actually hate Akai Shuuichi, at least not anymore. But that doesn't mean that Rei wouldn't be able to say with confidence that he still did. Rei can say _anything_ with great confidence. He could walk up to a random woman on the street and say with confidence that he was her time-travelling son from the future and you know what? He just might be able to get that random woman to believe it.

Rei is a very confident person. Some might say arrogant, but to that, Rei would smile, deduce whatever inconvenient truth they didn't want people to know – because everyone had something – and reveal it. Then he would snidely ask if arrogance was really a problem if it was warranted.

(It is. Rei knows he has a problem, it's how Kudo back when he was Conan had outmaneuvered him so many times. He's working on it.)

Yes, Rei is a confident person.

…But he's above all a logical person, and understands when his confidence isn't merited.

For one, he doesn't even know if Akai could see him in that way. Rei knows of two people that Akai has dated in the past, and both of them were women. That already doesn't bode well for him.

The more pressing issue is, however, the fact that Rei by his last count has attempted to kill Akai on no less than twelve occasions. Thirteen, if you include that time with the puppies, which Rei _does not_ because no matter how suffocated Rye had felt, death by puppies is _not_ a legitimate murder method.

Rei knows the exact number because Akai likes to bring it up at lunch. He isn't entirely sure why, but he suspects that Akai is fishing for an apology.

Honestly, if he really wanted Akai dead, he would've managed it eventually, he's _sure_. Most of those later times he was just trying to grievously injure Akai, which… isn't really that much better.

(He would apologize to Akai. Eventually. Someday. Maybe after the heat death of the universe.)

The point is that the idea of _Akai Shuuichi_ falling for someone who caused him so much grief and still gets into stupid fights with him – he tries, really, but sometimes Akai just really pisses him off no matter how much he likes him – is frankly laughable. He knows it is, even if some stupider parts of his mind don't quite want to agree.

Of course, Rei still is a confident person. If he went all out, tried to really get Akai to fall for him, he's sure he'd at least make a good showing. But well, Akai seems all set to get back together with Agent Starling, and Rei isn't petty enough to try to get in the way of that.

In fact, Rei is even happy for them. They can go fuck off back to America and have cute little children and live in matrimonial bliss for the rest of their lives.

(In reality, the very idea of Akai getting back together with Starling makes Rei want to punch something, preferably Akai's face, but Rei is a firm believer in the power of positive thinking. He needs to ease himself into the idea if it's going to happen sooner or later, and if he can crush his heart into enough pieces to stand _literally killing people,_ he can tolerate Akai dating someone that isn't him.)

At least, he's fairly sure that they're set to get back together. He's always had some trouble reading Akai, even if it's a bit easier now that he's FBI agent Akai Shuuichi and not Organization operative Rye. Akai Shuuichi seems _relatively_ more open, which by normal person standards means that he's three notches more expressive than a stone statue as opposed to one notch.

Rei just wishes a little that it wasn't Starling. He knows it isn't fair, but to him she's still very much the face of the FBI shoving its way into Japan and doing as they please. He can't quite let go of that resentment.

But Rei is just as expressionless as Akai in his own little way, and so he carefully locks his unfair resentment away and does nothing but nod politely whenever he sees her.

* * *

Honestly, it's miraculous enough that he and Akai have become friends again. But they have, and Rei cherishes this fact.

Even if he doesn't quite _show_ it, because he still gets into fights with Akai. Though in his defense, they're more heated debates than actual fistfights nowadays. Most of the time.

At this point though, Rei isn't entirely sure if he would be happy if he didn't fight with Akai so often, even about stupid things.

(At least then he knows Akai's full attention is on him.)

And somewhere along the line, Akai had become the one person Rei was comfortable going off at instead of swallowing his anger and letting some appeasing words fall from his lips. That freedom is intoxicating.

Really though, it all doesn't matter because Akai would return to America soon enough. That major operation a year back fractured the Organization, and another strike five months ago absolutely decimated it. Now, all that was left was rounding up the remnants and unravelling the tendrils they had extended out into so many areas of life in so many countries – the economy, the media, even the government in some places.

The cleanup in Japan might take years, but the PSB won't tolerate the FBI's presence for too much longer. They've been tolerated for the past few months out of the goodwill they gained for their key role in the strikes against the Organization. However, his superiors (and well, himself, because it still pisses him off that the FBI are acting like they own _his_ country) have been increasingly displeased that they're still here _._

This is Japan. Their help was appreciated but is no longer needed.

Rei suspects that the FBI had been exerting its influence to remain in Japan, because Japan probably didn't want to anger America over (what was seen) as a relatively small thing. There were only a handful FBI agents left behind in Japan now, after all. But the FBI's influence must only go so far, as the other day they had all been told that the FBI would be leaving in seven months' time. Exactly one year after that final strike.

So Akai would only be in Japan for a few months longer, and the day he left would also mark the day the FBI left. Which meant that it would be a net gain! Rei could look _forwards_ to the day Akai left.

Rei could stand a few months more of his idiotic feelings. He had been an Organization spy for years. This would be a piece of cake.

* * *

This is not a piece of cake.

Not that he lets it show, of course. If there's one characteristic Rei likes to add to all of the personas he's played, it's that he's professional, both in private and in public. He thinks that's probably a characteristic that comes naturally to him.

(Whatever 'naturally' means for someone like him.)

It's all Akai's fault anyways.

"Furuya-kun," Akai would say, coming up to his desk with a faint smile. "It's already well past two – why don't we go for lunch?"

And Rei would make cutting remarks and pretend that the paperwork on his desk was definitely very time-sensitive (it was not) before finally saying, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt." Then he would happily leave with Akai for a half-hour or so, because the both of them were too workaholic to take a break for much longer than that.

Sadly, he had long past shot by the stage where Akai pissing him off made him hate him, because even when they got into arguments during lunch about everything from the death penalty to the damn weather, Rei just found himself liking Akai more.

(Rei wasn't stupid. He knew what he liked so much was being able to let go. All he needed to do to really get over Akai was keep his mask on around Akai as well, shut away any hint of genuine thoughts and feelings.)

(Instead, he carefully shut away those logical thoughts.)

* * *

When Rei gets back to his apartment after a long day at work, he's surprised – and a little worried – to see the new message light on his Amuro Tooru phone blinking. Nowadays, he doesn't bring around his Amuro phone with him – he leaves it on his living room coffee table most days.

It's been a year now since Rei said goodbye to Amuro Tooru, right after that first major strike against the Organization. With the Organization in tatters but not yet fallen, he couldn't justify revealing himself as a NOC just yet – which meant that as a loyal Organization member, he needed to exert his 'full' effort towards 'helping' the Organization get back on its feet. So he cut up all his forged identity cards, quit his job at Café Poirot, and bid farewell to Detective Mouri and everyone else.

One thing he hadn't done, however, was get rid of the personal phone he was using at that time. He was already walking around with a phone for his PSB work – keeping another wasn't any more dangerous. Rei wanted to keep a line of communication open with the people he had gotten close to as Amuro Tooru, because if someone started sniffing around that identity he wanted to know.

It turned out to not really be necessary in the end. The Organization was struggling enough it couldn't afford to suspect its long-time operatives were NOCs by sending out feelers, and if he had pissed off anyone as Amuro Tooru, they hadn't acted on their anger. Rei just got a few messages about food from Ran and a few awkward texts from Azusa, but he hasn't gotten a new message in months now.

(Azusa had confessed to him the day he quit the café.

Rei had turned her down gently, in a more genuine way than he turned down anyone else because she deserved that much. He had told her that he couldn't see her in that way – though he omitted that it was due to him being incapable of seeing _anyone_ of her gender in that way, because he could never know how someone would react – and that he really wasn't the person she thought he was.

In the end, Azusa had fallen for Amuro Tooru, not Furuya Rei or gods forbid Bourbon. The person she liked just didn't exist, and Rei felt a little bad for the deception.)

When Rei picks up his Amuro phone and taps in the password to check the messages, he's surprised to see the one new message is from Sera, of all people.

He last talked with Sera, though only briefly, several months back when she had come to talk to the PSB with her reluctant mother and Akai. The revelations of that day had been… shocking. Half because Sera Mary had been willing to talk to the PSB about it at all, but he supposed that by then, an enemy of an enemy is a friend had become everyone's adage.

Rei taps open the message and scans it.

 _Hey, Amuro-san! Or Furuya-san I guess lol. Are you free sometime? I wanna talk to you about something._

The message terminates with two different angry faces then a winky face. Rei isn't entirely sure what that's supposed to mean, but nonetheless, he sends her an address of a moderately popular café to meet at and tells her he'll be free in the afternoon in three days' time.

He would love for Sera to decide to come work for his department once she graduated university and went through the Academy. She's sharper at age nineteen than some of the middle-aged officers he has working for him, and unlike Kudo (who would sadly probably make a beeline to Tokyo's homicide department), she actually seems to have some interest in intelligence work.

So Rei would prefer to maintain an amiable relationship with her, and if that involved humouring her with whatever she wanted, so be it. It's not like he had anything better to do in his free time. Before, he had been juggling his Poirot part-time work, his freelance detective work, his PSB work, and his Organization work. Now all he had was his PSB work, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do with all the extra time he had now.

(For a while, he had brought home files on cases that had been unsolved for long enough they could be brought out of the office without anyone complaining.

Then he had solved a couple of these cases, and at first his superiors had been happy. Only they started saying things like, 'Furuya, when did you get the time to do all of this?' and once he had answered, started to complain that 'We don't want you to work yourself to death,' and 'Overwork is a real problem in this country, you know?'

And then they banned him from taking case files home and told him to actually _rest_ on the few rest days he had in a month. Honestly, it was ridiculous. If he hadn't worked himself to death anytime in the past ten years, he wouldn't do it now.

If there's one thing he misses about the Organization it's that his superiors _there_ didn't care if he died.

Perhaps that isn't something he should be missing, but Rei can't really bring himself to care when the nightmares creep in if he keeps his hands still for too long.)

He tosses the phone onto the sofa, then heads to the kitchen to make himself dinner.

* * *

The café Rei chose has a bell attached to the door – the sound of it ringing as he enters makes him a little nostalgic. It's a medium-sized café, more functional than cute, and fairly packed. Rei had chosen it mostly because the waiters tended to be busy enough they didn't care for eavesdropping.

Sera's already sitting in a booth when he enters the café. She spots him almost immediately and starts waving enthusiastically at him.

"Amuro-san!" she calls out brightly, though the sound is a little drowned out by the chatter of conversation in the café.

Rei raises a hand in greeting and walks over to her booth.

"Sera-san," Rei says politely as he sits down across from her. There's already two glasses of water on the table – Sera must've told the waiter she was waiting for someone.

They exchange a few inane pleasantries before Rei picks up the menu and skims through it. He figures they might as well order before getting into whatever Sera wanted. There's nothing that really grabs him, but he already knew that would be the case.

He's debating between just getting coffee or ordering a green tea cake as well when he notices Sera is staring at him.

"What is it?" he asks, folding the menu shut.

He'd get both – he spotted Sera eyeing the strawberry parfait on the menu, and that would probably take a little while for her to finish. Best to get something that would take some time to eat too.

"It's just," Sera starts, letting out a small laugh. "I was thinking, your whole atmosphere really is completely different from before."

 _Before_. Back when he was still playing Amuro, she meant.

Furuya Rei was a particularly professional persona, though all his personalities had aspects of professionality. Sharp words and serious looks – little room for smiles whether cheerful or smug. Amuro Tooru and Bourbon, however, had both thrown on smiles as naturally as breathing. But they've both been dead for months now, and Rei's mostly gotten out of the habit of pasting on a smile wherever and whenever.

(Though he still pastes on smiles around Akai at times. Otherwise, Akai might figure out that Rei smiles just a little too much around Akai, and that just wouldn't do.)

Rei smiles brightly, and fixing that mask onto his face actually feels a bit relieving. "Is this better? I'm afraid I might be a little rusty."

"Ah, it was just an observation," Sera says quickly, "You don't have to force yourself."

Rei just widens his smile and taps a finger against his cheek. "Actually, you know what, this isn't so bad for a change."

Sera stares at him, then lets out a chuckle. "…You're a bit scary, Amuro-san."

Rei just hums.

* * *

It's only after a waitress passes by and takes their orders that Sera finally starts talking about something interesting.

"So, I was talking with Shuu-nii the other day," Sera says, and Rei makes sure he doesn't even twitch.

"Oh?" he says instead, tone carefully uninterested.

"Amuro-san – no, Furuya-san." Sera slams her hands on the table and leans in closer, looking devastated in a rather comical, over-the-top way. Rei blinks at her in vague interest. "Is Shuu-nii really leaving Japan soon?"

Soon? Seven months wasn't really "soon". Was Akai leaving earlier?

His earlier effort at not reacting is for naught, because Rei's hand twitches despite himself on the table. In a casual movement, he shifts the hand under the table – if he was going to react so obviously, it might as well be somewhere that couldn't be seen.

"Did he say that?" Rei asks calmly, nothing but light curiosity in his voice.

Sera leans back against her seat and crosses her arms, face returning to normal. She closes her eyes for a moment and sighs. "He said that he would only be in Japan for as long as the PSB want them there, but he doesn't know when that might be. But you're PSB, so you should know, right, Amu- Furuya-san!"

Akai, that bastard, he knew perfectly well how long the PSB planned to keep the FBI here. He must've not wanted to deal with a clingy Sera. To be fair, Rei supposed that Akai may not have intended to push this off onto Rei – he may not have realized that Sera had a way to contact him.

Well either way, Akai was going to _regret_ being an emotionally stunted bastard.

"I'm not entirely sure myself, since it's something my superiors decide," Rei says, because he didn't want Sera to try to ask _him_ to get Akai and by proxy the FBI to stay longer. "But I've heard that we're only going to be working with the FBI for" – and here, Rei lies through his teeth – "a couple months longer."

If Akai calls him out on his lie, he would have to admit _his_ lie. And the FBI hadn't been there when his superior had told him when the FBI were being forced to leave. For all Akai knows, Rei really doesn't know when the FBI are supposed to leave.

Rei smiles apologetically and continues, "To be honest, Sera-san, they're already pushing it. The only reason why we're tolerating them is because the FBI has been _really_ pushing to stay," – pure speculation admittedly, but again, Sera didn't need to know that – "and we don't want to get America too angry. But at some point we're going to need to stand our ground."

"I guess that makes sense," says Sera, looking downhearted. "Shuu-nii was saying something like that too, that they were trying to stay in Japan because they didn't trust the PSB with the cleanup of a decades-long operation..."

Rei's smile disappears.

His hands clench into fists under the table, tiny pinpricks of pain shooting out from where his fingernails dig into his palm, and somehow manages to stay a bit composed.

"Oh?" Rei says, his voice much too low but still steady. " _Akai_ said that, did he?" – and he intends to leave it at that, except saying his name makes his anger flare up more than he can control, so he spits out, "That's some joke that _they_ don't trust _us._ "

He thought that they had built up a least a little bit of trust, but Rei supposes he shouldn't have been so stupid.

"Uh, Furuya-san," Sera says, a touch awkwardly. "Sorry, that was a bit ambiguous. Shuu-nii was saying that was what the _FBI_ thought. He said that he trusted you right after."

The haze dissipates. When Rei blinks, he sees Sera eyeing him strangely.

Amuro Tooru. He's being Amuro Tooru right now. So he needs to smile.

Rei restores his smile to his face and simply says, "Oh? That's difficult to believe."

"He did," Sera insists hotly, "Well, okay, he said that you could probably manage most of the cleanup on your own given enough time, so the entire PSB should be more than capable."

Rei studies Sera carefully. She doesn't appear to be lying, but – he spots Sera's eyes dashing to the side – she's keeping something back. Probably some stupid FBI-aggrandising statement Akai said immediately afterwards, but whatever else he said wouldn't cancel out the original compliment.

Rei can't help but let his smile soften a little. This meeting is turning out to be more informative than he had expected.

"Anyways though, Sera-san," Rei begins, then wonders why Sera's gaze has become so sharp all of a sudden. "If that's all you wanted to know, couldn't we have done this through text?"

"That was just the first thing I wanted to talk about," Sera says, and that calculating look in her eyes still hasn't disappeared. Rei keeps his guard up. She continues, "I wanted to know how long Shuu-nii had left, because I wanted to know how long I had to execute my plan."

"Your… plan," Rei echoes skeptically.

"Yes!" Sera says eagerly, leaning towards him over the table again. Rei swears he can see stars in her eyes. "My plan to keep Shuu-nii in Japan!"

Rei is saved from having to immediately respond to her ridiculous fervour by a waitress finally coming by with their orders.

* * *

"Before you say anything, Sera-san," Rei says as he uses his fork to cut out a bite-sized chunk from his small cake. He brings the piece to his mouth, grimaces a little because it was sweeter than he had expected, then swallows. After pushing the plate a little away from him, he continues, "I am _not_ interested in getting the FBI to stay any longer."

"Then you might be interested in getting Shuu-nii _alone_ to stay longer?" Sera asks cheerfully, and oops, that was an embarrassing slip. But it would be easy to recover from.

"Just because we get along a little better now doesn't mean I feel a burning need for him to stay in Japan," Rei replies. Technically he wasn't lying. "Besides, it's _Akai_. If the FBI leaves, he leaves."

"And if that wasn't the case?" says Sera, bright grin on her face. Rei waits as she brings a spoonful of her parfait to her mouth and swallows. She continues, waving around the now-empty spoon excitedly. "Mama wants Shuu-nii to stay near us now that I mean, the whole reason why he left for America in the first place isn't a thing anymore."

"…And?" Rei asks, unimpressed, because regardless what Akai's mother may want, Rei doubts that Akai would so easily leave the FBI.

He doesn't know what this 'original reason' Akai joined up is (though it piques his curiosity), but what he _does_ know is that Akai is dedicated to a fault to his work, even if he's a bit of a lone wolf at times. His dedication never struck Rei as patriotism, unlike with himself – Akai's mentioned before that he still considers himself more British than American, after all. But a desire to help others or be useful or whatever it was that motivated Akai would work just as well to keep him tied to the one place he could use his… skills…

Rei narrows his eyes. "Your mother wants him to work with her."

"Heh, yup," confirms Sera happily – then she sighs and drops her head down to the table. Her face is partly hidden by the half-eaten parfait in front of her, but Rei can surmise that she's rather dejected. She mutters, "But Shuu-nii said no."

"I understand that must be disappointing for you, Sera-san," Rei says with a kind smile, carefully ignoring the part of him that seems equally disappointed as Sera. "But I don't see how this has anything to do with me."

Sera burrows her head into her arm.

"I just don't get it," Sera complains, voice muffled. Rei holds back a sigh, because it seems like she's not planning to listen to him. "We're his family and he couldn't even bother to _hint_ that he was still alive" – Rei wisely decides not to bring up the fact that it was mainly _his_ fault that Akai needed to be so careful – "and he doesn't even want to stay with us now! I was so happy that I could actually talk with Shuu-nii almost whenever I wanted, then it turns out he's just going to leave so soon…"

"I can sympathize, but like I said –" Rei begins.

"– But even someone as emotionally dense as Shuu-nii would normally want to stay with family over just friends, right?" Sera interrupts, glancing back up. In between his irritation at being interrupted Rei gives her an awkward smile. He's not sure how to respond to that – it's not like he understands 'family' himself. Luckily, it seems to be a rhetorical question because Sera immediately continues talking. "That's when I realized – Shuu-nii doesn't want to stay with us because _Jodie-sensei_ is going to go back to America!"

Rei waits for Sera to continue, but judging from the expectant look on her face it seems like she's finished.

"You're probably right," Rei says, voice level. Under the table, his hands clench a little. "They are very close, and they were dating in the past."

"Right?" exclaims Sera, finally straightening back up. She nods in agreement. "When I ask him about work, he basically talks about Jodie-sensei. And you, I guess, sometimes."

Rei dowses the little spark of happiness that lights up at the idea of Akai willingly talking about him with the cold logic that Akai knows that Sera knows him. Of course he would talk about him, he thinks Sera might be interested.

He's beginning to get an inkling of what Sera's plan is, but it seems to be something he had long since made up his mind on for rather different reasons. Rei's not petty enough to help her with it.

"Sera-san, I'm not going to help you break up Agent Starling and Akai," Rei says firmly.

"What? No!" Sera says, sounding genuinely offended. "Furuya-san, I think you're misunderstanding something. Jodie-sensei and Shuu-nii aren't dating. Jodie-sensei doesn't even like Shuu-nii like that anymore."

"Sorry?" asks Rei, because this is news to him. He still clearly remembers how Starling had reacted towards him when he was disguised as Akai. If the desperate way she had chased after him wasn't love, he didn't know what was.

Though Rei supposes that was over two years ago now. Two years was more than enough time for people's feelings to change. He should know best.

"If Shuu-nii was happy with someone, I'd support him no matter what," insists Sera, scowling. "But I asked Jodie-sensei whether she liked Shuu-nii, and she said she didn't."

"People can lie," Rei says reasonably, "Especially if they're hiding their relationship for whatever reason."

"No, I'm uh, sure," Sera says. She reddens a little and glances to the side. "I thought of that too, so what I did when I talked to her the other day was tell her that Shuu-nii had told me that he liked her and that I wanted to know whether she did back."

Rei gives Sera a considering look. That was some manipulation Rei could really appreciate.

"What did she say?" asks Rei.

"She laughed at me, really hard, and told me she was absolutely certain that Shuu-nii had no interest in her now," Sera explains, sounding embarrassed. "She said that I must've misunderstood something that he said and that she also had no interest in him anymore. That they were just good friends."

Rei frowns. If Starling hadn't believed Sera's lie, then they couldn't definitively say that Starling hadn't been lying –

"– Then she showed me a picture of her current boyfriend. Completely different type than Shuu-nii, but Jodie-sensei seemed to really care about him."

Ah, alright then.

"So it's unrequited love," Rei muses. Well, he was intimately familiar with that. Rei feels a bit of schadenfreude that Akai might be in the same situation as him. "In that case, assuming that it really is Jodie-sensei that's keeping Akai with the FBI, your plan is to…" Rei taps a finger on his cheek thoughtfully and can't help but laugh. "Get him over it?"

"Yeah," says Sera, frowning. "Maybe if he meets a nice Japanese girl or guy or something he'll stop wanting to go back to America!"

Guy? Rei can't help the surprised expression that flashes over his face – he regains control of himself quickly, but by then it's too late. Sera is a sharp-eyed girl.

(He also can't help a small burst of hope, because this meant he at least has a _chance_.)

She pales. "Oh no."

"It's alright," Rei says reassuringly, trying his best to sound genuine because he knows that Sera knows how good he is at acting. "I don't care, Sera-san."

He was gay himself, of course he didn't care that Akai swung both ways. But he wasn't quite willing to reveal that much.

Sera studies his expression carefully, then eventually leans back against her seat and lets out a sigh of relief. It seems as though he successfully convinced her.

"I'm really glad," she says, expression twisted in shame. "I can't believe I let that slip so easily."

"Everyone makes slips sometimes, Sera-san," Rei says, "It's how you recover from them that matters."

"I didn't recover from that one at all," grumbles Sera.

"And sometimes you don't need to," Rei finishes. He gives Sera a bright smile, which Sera cautiously returns.

"Thanks," Sera says sincerely.

"It's nothing you should have to thank me for," Rei responds, "But anyways, I'm afraid I can't help you with your, ah, plan."

Sera looks terribly disappointed, but not too surprised.

"It was a long shot anyways," she says. Then her eyes suddenly narrow, gaze sharp, and Rei's smile widens in an automatic defense mechanism. She continues, "But you know, Furuya-san, I'm okay if I don't get your help finding someone _new_ for Shuu-nii…"

Rei carefully doesn't react to that insinuation, because there was no way that Sera could suspect that his thoughts about her brother weren't exactly platonic.

"Either way, I'm afraid I'm not interested," Rei says firmly. He doesn't want to deal with the conversation any longer, so he makes a show of checking his watch then stands up from the table, amiable smile on his face. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. It was good seeing you again, Sera-san. You can have my cake if you'd like." Rei gestures towards the barely-touched green tea cake. "My coffee's gone cold though, so it seems that will have to go to waste. I'll go pay at the counter."

"Already?" Sera says in surprise. "Well, thank you for meeting with me today either way, Furuya-san. You don't have to pay for me though."

"Don't worry about it, you're a university student," says Rei, waving a hand dismissively. "I'm sure you don't have that much money to spare compared to me."

"…You're right," admits Sera, "Thanks."

"It's no problem," Rei says. He waves a goodbye before heading to the counter to pay for their food.

As Rei steps out of the café, bell tinkling again, he can't hold back the smile widening on his face.

He has a _chance._

He hums as he makes his way home.

* * *

Rei makes one tentative move one day during his break when Akai's at the PSB offices. He finds Akai by an open hallway window, smoking.

Rei casually strolls up to him and grimaces as a blast of cold air hits his face from the window. It's the middle of winter and the temperatures nowadays are below zero. But he swallows back an irritated retort about the window and Akai's smoking habits. This would be terrible timing to get into an argument.

"Akai," Rei greets.

Akai turns his gaze from the window to him, eyes widening slightly. He puts the hand holding his cigarette down, letting the smoke drain out the window. "Hey, Furuya-kun. What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something," replies Rei, his voice a little scathing despite himself. Obviously he was here to talk to Akai. If he had suddenly developed an urge to smoke, he would go to a smoking room, where you were _supposed_ to smoke. Of course, the idiot FBI doesn't seem to have gotten the memo –

–Not the time. Rei schools his face.

"Oh? What about?" Akai asks, and Rei sees an amused smile playing at his lips.

He narrows his eyes a little, not entirely sure what Akai is finding so funny. But he continues nonetheless. "Are you free for dinner tonight?"

"Dinner?" echoes Akai, his brows furrowing in confusion for a moment before he composes himself. "Of course. Where did you want to go?"

Rei hadn't quite expected a positive response so easily. They may have gone out for lunch alone plenty of times and gone out drinking along with colleagues just as much, but neither of them had ever invited the other to 'dinner'. He wasn't about to question his good luck though. He supposes the jump from 'lunch' to 'dinner' isn't that significant.

"Some of my groceries are going to go bad soon but there's too much for me to eat alone," Rei lies, smiling at Akai amiably. "Since you know where I live already, I thought I might as well invite you for dinner."

Best to approach him slowly. The first step was having more interaction outside of work – lunches were basically on work time, after all. If Akai rejected spending time together in a private setting, he would try taking a step back and inviting him out to dinner with some work colleagues sometime.

"Whatever the reason, I would love to. I've heard good things about your cooking," Akai says, a full-on smile on his face. Rei can't help but drink it in, even if the reason is just his cooking.

"Alright, we'll meet after work then," he says, a little more cheerfully than he intends. He lets his smile widen anyways as he takes a step back and waves. "I should get back. See you tonight, Akai."

But before Rei can leave, Akai's brows furrow again. He calls out, "Wait, Furuya-kun."

Rei stops and looks back up at Akai, studying his face. It seems troubled for some reason.

"What is it?" he asks curiously.

"…Is that it?" Akai says after a small pause.

"Is what it?" says Rei, frowning. He winces as another gust of cold air blows in from the window. With some effort, he swallows back another snippy comment about closing the window and instead says, "It's cold here, so if you don't have anything to say, I'll be leaving."

Akai goes strangely quiet – but in the end, he just nods and waves a goodbye.

The strange behaviour douses his good mood in cold water.

* * *

But with work being work, when Rei meets up with Akai again in the evening, he seems to be acting normal enough. So Rei lets it go, because he doubts Akai would give him a straight answer either way.

The meal goes well enough. Akai praises his cooking, which is nice, but really only expected. Rei went through a lot of trouble to make sure that his cooking was perfect.

(It's amazing the flakiness that managers will tolerate when customers are looking for food that can only be made by a certain employee. He's quite sure he would've been fired for skipping too much work at many restaurants and cafés if he hadn't boasted impeccable skills when he _was_ there.)

They're talking normally after the meal, sitting across from each other with their plates pushed to the side, when Akai suddenly starts eyeing him strangely again.

Rei doesn't bother to hide his scowl. His patience only stretches so far.

"What is it?" he asks irritably.

Akai blinks at him in surprise – which is rather offensive, because how unobservant did Akai think he was? – then says frankly, "You've been acting a little strange today, Furuya-kun."

Rei half-laughs, half-chokes. He leans in a little over the table and drawls, "I could say that the same for you, Akai."

"Oh?" Akai says, sounding genuinely confused, and really, how could someone lack this much self-awareness?

Rei gives him an unimpressed look. "Yes."

"Hm," says Akai in consideration, hand moving up to his chin. Akai glances to the side. "I suppose it might seem that way. I just would prefer if you didn't hold things back, Furuya-kun."

"I'm sorry?" Rei asks, raising an eyebrow. He hides behind a smile as he swallows and carefully analyzes their recent interactions. He doesn't _think_ that he's done anything that would make Akai notice how he really thinks about him, but Akai is a talented investigator. Even if not as talented as himself, of course.

"I guess I'm little worried," Akai admits. His gaze moves back forwards to meet Rei's. Rei stares back automatically, because for one, it's Akai Shuuichi admitting to an emotion, and for two, the gaze seems awfully serious.

Rei laughs to hide his discomfort more than anything else, then says, somewhat mockingly, "You? Worried? About what?"

"About you," says Akai, and Rei is taken a little aback.

"I'm fine," says Rei. It's the truth, for the most part.

"Are you?" Akai asks, frowning. "With what happened five months ago…"

Rei's fists clench closed under the table.

"I don't want to talk about that," Rei says chillingly, firmly, and he knows the look he gives Akai is as cold as ice. But Akai just meets his gaze calmly.

"I understand that, but I don't want y-" Akai starts.

"-If you understand, then we don't need to talk about it," Rei cuts in before Akai can finish. He smiles coolly.

"Furuya-kun," says Akai, sounding frustrated for once. "If yo-"

"-If you don't have anything interesting to say, then I would appreciate it if you would leave," Rei cuts in again. He stands up from the table, chilly smile not fading. "It's long past the time you ought to have gone, anyways."

Akai stares at him for quite a few moments before finally letting out a long-suffering sigh and standing up as well. "I can see there's no point in talking further right now."

"You think correctly," says Rei.

Akai lets out another sigh and says quietly, "I understand. Good night, Furuya-kun."

"Good night," echoes Rei politely.

He follows Akai to the door to make sure he really does leave. But after again staring at Rei with an unreadable expression for a beat or two, Akai puts on his coat and opens the door obediently enough.

Akai glances back at Rei when he's halfway out the door. "We'll talk tomorrow."

Rei glares at him, but lets out a harrumph and replies, "Of course."

Akai's gaze softens. He gives Rei a nod and then he's out the door. It closes softly behind him.

Rei stares at the closed door for a few moments too long. Finally, Rei forces himself from the entranceway and goes to his living room, mind carefully blank.

He sinks onto his sofa and sighs.

* * *

The _incident_ Akai spoke of isn't something he thinks about much nowadays, despite what Akai might think. It doesn't feature in his nightmares or in his dreams. It's just something that happened, that's all. His mind has far better material to work with to give him night terrors.

No, the incident had just been in the spur of the moment.

In that final strike against the Organization a few months ago, many Organization remnants – including Rei – were hiding away in a large, abandoned warehouse. Rei had forwarded the location to his superiors over a week ago, but they waited to make a move until they had other information on Organization hideouts in the country.

The plan had been for the PSB to charge into the warehouse and arrest them all. Only the remnants, perhaps sensing the noose tightening around their necks, decided the day of the operation that they would try to fake their deaths.

With a bomb.

Rei had no idea where they had even _gotten_ a bomb and why he hadn't known about it. In retrospect, he should've probably realized that was a sign he wasn't being trusted, but even he made mistakes.

He managed to sneak off to forward the new information to the PSB, but unfortunately he hadn't been as careful as he usually was what with the tight time constraint. He was caught, and though he managed to destroy his cellphone with its sensitive information, he didn't quite manage to escape.

They tied him to a column with some spare rope up near the bomb. Then they tried to punch out information from him. Rei stalled for time by dragging out his interrogation, before finally 'admitting' that he was a PSB spy and that they were going to arrive in a couple hours.

(The PSB were actually set to arrive at just about that time. Rei knew they would be waiting right outside the warehouse by then.)

As Rei had predicted, they immediately set the timer on the bomb and rushed out the warehouse – straight into the arms of the PSB, he presumed.

Rei realized that it would be unlikely that anyone would come to save him until it was too late. The warehouse was abandoned, in a decrepit part of town. The PSB had likely decided to let the bomb go off rather than risk the lives of a bomb disposal crew to save a bunch of buildings set to be demolished soon anyways.

So as soon as they arrested the remnants, they would hurry out of the area. Rei doubted in the time sensitive, stressful situation that anyone would notice that he was missing. At least not in time.

No one would come.

Rei tested the restraints tying his hands and thought that perhaps, if he struggled, he could get himself out of them before the bomb went off.

Then he wondered, numbness washing over him – why struggle?

Amuro Tooru had been dead for months now. Bourbon was always supposed to die that day. What did it really matter if Furuya Rei died as well?

Who really cared about Furuya Rei?

He'd like to think that Kazami would at least cry, but he would probably realize that he was better off without a superior like him who barely showed his face at the office. He had gotten closer to his other subordinates these past months, but he didn't think any of them really cared that much about him yet, so that would be alright.

He had no family, so no one would care there. Azusa and the Mouris would mourn Amuro Tooru, he was sure, but Amuro Tooru never really existed in the first place.

Conan – or rather Kudo – and Akai might care, he supposed. But he could tell that Kudo was always a little cautious of him, despite how much they worked together, and Akai was well, Akai. Even though they had somehow become friends again, Rei doubted he would even shed a tear at his funeral.

So he thought – it would be fine, really, if for once in his life he didn't really try. It was a long time coming anyways – he should've died ages before good people like Date and Matsuda and Scotch. Rei was tired and he ached all over from the interrogation from earlier and he was _tired._ So he closed his eyes, leaned against the grimy wall and waited for the inevitable.

Rei isn't quite sure how long he sat there in a bleary haze. Later, he learnt that he had been suffering from a minor concussion.

He didn't wear a watch and the bomb was placed a few paces behind him on top of a crate, far enough away that he couldn't see its timer. He remembers that time seemed to tick by agonizingly slowly, but all he really knows is that it's Akai's voice shouting his name that made him come to.

Half-wondering if he was having auditory hallucinations, he worked through the pain and exhaustion to shout out a response, because he would be _damned_ if he let another friend die before him. Or with him, as the case would be.

"The bomb's going to go off any minute. Go _away!_ " he managed to yell out before collapsing back down, pain shooting through his head.

He didn't hear his name being shouted anymore, so he assumed that either Akai had heard his voice or his auditory hallucinations had died off. Before he could relax, however, he heard the sound of footsteps rapidly drawing near.

Akai came bursting out from behind a shipping container and stopped, turning to stare at Rei.

Even feeling as miserable as he did, Rei managed to work up the energy to stare back. Akai just looked so odd. There was that he was out of breath, of course, but the strangely wild look to his eyes was what drew his attention the most.

"Furuya-kun," Akai breathed – voice filled with uncharacteristic relief – before running straight past him to the bomb. From the sound of Akai swearing under his breath, Rei could tell they didn't have much time left.

"Did you not hear me, idiot FBI?" Rei bit out, angling his head to look back towards Akai. "Get away. There's not enough time."

"There's enough time," Akai snapped back, and now his tone was uncharacteristically angry. Rei's next words died in his throat. Face set, Akai rushed back towards Rei to begin struggling with the knots tying him to the column.

"I…" Rei swallowed and stared up at Akai, eyes wide because he wasn't seeing Akai, he was seeing Scotch and no, not again. He gritted out, "I can't take another friend dying because of me, Akai."

"And I," Akai said, a grim look of satisfaction flashing over his face as Rei's right hand goes free. Rei let it fall to the ground. "can't take someone I li- a friend of mine dying to the Organization again either. So you don't have a choice in the matter."

"Akai, even if you get me free," – Rei winced as rope scraped against his left wrist – "I can't promise I'll be able to run. They did a number on me."

"Then I'll help you," Akai replied immediately, sounding completely sincere. Rei glared up at him.

"I'm not a damsel in distress," Rei hissed, "I knew the risks. I knew what I was getting into."

"Needing help sometimes doesn't make you helpless, Furuya-kun," said Akai. With one last pull from Akai, Rei felt his left hand go free. "And just because you know the risks doesn't mean the worst-case scenario has to come to pass."

At that point, Rei realized that Akai wouldn't give in without quite a bit of effort on his part. Trying to talk him down would take more time than it would for them to try to escape together. So although he was still displeased, Rei accepted the shoulder Akai offered to him readily enough and stood up, reluctantly using Akai as support.

They didn't waste any more time speaking as they half-shuffled, half-ran their way out.

In the end, it turned out that a fair number of people noticed that Rei was missing. Akai had just been the only one who didn't care about orders and _important safety procedures_ and so he had been the one to race into the warehouse at full speed.

(Some of his subordinates had actually been _teary_ at seeing Rei safe and relatively sound. Kazami had been one of them.)

And maybe that was why, or maybe it was just that half of his bruises were healed and he wasn't suffering from a concussion any longer, but by the time he woke up in a clean hospital bed, he was very much happy to be alive.

But Akai didn't quite know that. And Akai was sharp enough to notice that Rei hadn't even tried to get out of those ropes that were loose enough for Akai to untie in a minute or two.

So Akai was rather annoying those first couple weeks after the incident, remarkably so considering that he was still about as expressive as a rock and as emotionally understanding as a fish.

Eventually though, Akai wisened up and realized that Rei wasn't going to respond to a straightforward approach. That's when Akai began keeping an eye on him in vaguely more subtle ways.

Like inviting him to lunch.

And at first Rei just agreed because he figured Akai would be more annoying if he refused, but then it was actually _fun_ talking with him, and then he realized found it terribly amusing that Akai Shuuichi of all people was worrying about him…

…and then he saw how Akai acted around someone he wasn't talking to just out of pity.

Rei is a confident person. So perhaps in another world, he might've read into the way Akai spends so much time with him, is always so willing to listen to him.

Except Rei knows perfectly well that all Akai cares about is not having another death on his conscience.

Confidence is useless in the face of facts.

* * *

After a good night's sleep, Rei regrets losing his temper. Akai bringing up that incident had just doused a bucket of cold water over him, reminded him not to get full of himself. It had reminded him of the main reason why Akai spent time with him in the first place, and well, he didn't like thinking about that.

Regardless, it was rather rude to chase Akai out like that, especially after inviting him in the first place. Rei really should apologize to Akai. He had enough of an uphill battle ahead of him to get Akai to see him in that way without _adding_ to the ill will Akai might hold against him.

It was just that his pride made it hard for him to really _want_ to. Really, the blame was fifty-fifty anyways, wasn't it? It was mostly Akai's fault for bringing up that incident in the first place. Clearly.

But those kinds of petulant thoughts weren't very helpful to his overall goals.

(And besides, Rei did admittedly feel a small bit of remorse.)

Maybe if he rephrased it within his mind. He wasn't really _apologizing,_ he wasn't really saying he was 'in the wrong', he was just furthering his goals! Right, he could do that.

All he needed to do was apologize and have it recognized. How hard could that be?

* * *

"Akai," Rei says casually during one lunch break. He waits for Akai to look up at him from his meal before smiling brightly. "I wanted to apologize for well," - and he pauses, because saying 'chasing you out of my apartment' was a bit gauche - "my behaviour the other day."

"I do appreciate the effort," Akai says, raising an eyebrow. "But I would prefer that you didn't force yourself, _Amuro-kun_. You don't need to put on an act."

Rei can't hold back a twitch of irritation as Akai returns to his food and pays him no more attention. But he holds back his temper and restrains himself to a single, annoyed click of his tongue. Going off at Akai would be counterproductive.

So all he needed to do was apologize a little more sincerely. That couldn't be too hard.

* * *

Rei thrusts out a bag of coffee beans to Akai with a scowl near the end of one work day, right before Akai is about to leave. Akai accepts it easily enough, though he stares at it confusion.

"What's this, Furuya-kun?" he asks, holding the bag closer to his face to peer at it. "Coffee beans?"

"I heard you became a little more skilled in the culinary department after the time you spent as Okiya Subaru," Rei says, voice slipping into haughtiness despite himself. He waves a hand dismissively. "I thought you might appreciate making yourself some decent coffee sometimes instead of that canned slosh you drink so often."

Akai gives him an odd expression. "Thank you?"

"I suppose you can always take it as a bit of an apology for the other day too," Rei says mildly.

At those words, Akai's expression clears – then he lets out a long-suffering sigh.

"Like I said before, you don't need to force yourself," Akai says. He slips the bag into a jacket pocket. "Though I will happily accept this, Bourbon."

Rei grits his teeth as he watches Akai leave and somehow manages to stop himself from throwing a punch.

* * *

Rei decides he could use some advice from someone who was _intimately_ familiar with apologies. So naturally, he calls up Kudo one night after work.

"Why are you asking _me_ for advice, Furuya-san?" Kudo is wondering from the other side of the phone, voice skeptical.

"You have lots of experience apologizing, don't you?" Rei answers brightly. He leans back on his sofa.

"…I do," admits Kudo, sounding sour. Rei is a little amused at the petulance – he doesn't know exactly how Ran reacted to finding out who Edogawa Conan really was, but he can't imagine it was good.

…Which was admittedly, partly why he had never revealed who he really was to most people he had gotten close to as Amuro Tooru. He didn't really want to deal with the fallout.

"So what's so strange about asking you?" Rei asks.

"But if it's _acting_ sincere you want advice on, I think no one's better than you," Kudo points out.

Rei clicks his tongue in irritation, because it was _true._ He was great at acting, great at hiding what he really felt, but unfortunately in this case, it was playing against him.

"The person I'm apologizing to appears to think I'm insincere," says Rei reluctantly, "They think I'm just acting."

There's a moment of silence on the other end, then he hears faint, muffled laughter. Rei narrows his eyes.

"Is something funny, Kudo-kun?" Rei says sweetly.

"Sorry," Kudo replies finally, still sounding amused. "It's just, I guess that's a problem you'd have, isn't it?"

"I suppose it is," says Rei, voice curt.

Kudo lets out another chuckle, then says, "I guess if I had to imagine you being sincere, Furuya-san, it would be when you're mad?"

Rei raises an eyebrow and presses the cellphone a little closer to his ear. "I'm sorry?"

"When you're mad," Kudo repeats, "You're always so kept together. So when you're ticked off, it kinda stands out."

Rei frowns, contemplating the suggestion.

"I'll consider it," he says finally.

* * *

It's another week before Rei finally decides to take Kudo's advice. Admittedly, a large part of his reasoning is that going off at Akai has begun to seem like a very attractive prospect.

"Akai," Rei calls out irritably one evening, stopping Akai before he can leave the building. Akai glances back, still paces away from the glass doors, and waits for Rei to run up to him.

"What is it, Furuya-kun?" Akai asks, eyeing him a little cautiously.

Rei crosses his arms and glares up at him. "Akai. Come out to drink with me."

Akai blinks twice, stares a bit, then shrugs and says, "I don't mind. Where to?"

Rei just gestures for Akai to follow him and strides towards the glass doors. They walk to a nearby bar, Rei stonily silent the entire way because he would be damned before he got into an argument in the middle of the street.

But he also doesn't feel like keeping everything in much longer, so as soon as they sit down at a table, he glares at Akai across from him and snaps, "What do you _want_ from me?"

Akai is visibly taken aback and opens his mouth to say something, but Rei continues before he can.

"I've apologized to you _twice_ and you've barely acknowledged it," Rei hisses. He slams a fist on the table. "The very idea of sincerely apologizing to you makes me cringe and I did it twice. You could at least have some reaction."

Well, for some definition of sincerely.

Rei glares at Akai, incredulously notices that Akai is beginning to smile, then glares some more.

"I'm sorry," Akai says, and despite the faint smile on his face he does sound somewhat apologetic. Rei softens his glare a little. Akai continues, "I didn't want an apology for the sake of one, but it seems I misunderstood your level of sincerity. Thank you, Furuya-kun."

"Don't expect one again," Rei informs him curtly.

"The blame isn't all on you," says Akai matter-of-factly, "I may have been trying to provoke you."

Rei eyes Akai with a raised eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"It was just," Akai coughs and actually looks a touch embarrassed. "You seemed to be holding yourself back these past couple weeks."

"Like you're one to talk about holding himself back," Rei retorts snidely. He carefully hides his surprise.

So Akai had been bothered by him not picking a fight? That… actually made some sense.

(Rei suddenly recalls _why_ he loves talking with Akai so much and suddenly feels silly for willingly letting go of the freedom to act as he pleased for a hazy goal.)

"You're right, of course," says Akai with a small laugh. "But I do think I'm at least a little better around you, you know? We have known each other for quite a while now."

Then Akai smiles at Rei and Rei freezes, staring despite himself.

The smile on Akai's face may be small compared to the throwaway smiles Rei used to flash so often, but it's soft and the look in his eyes just seems so genuine. But what makes him freeze isn't the smile itself – it's that Rei doesn't think that it looks strange.

 _Rei has seen this smile before._

Akai has smiled at him like this before, many times. Enough times that Rei doesn't register it as abnormal, despite the obvious abnormality of a smile like that on Akai Shuuichi's face.

Thinking back, since the incident, Rei had been spending a ridiculous amount of time with Akai. But these past two weeks had been unusually devoid of Akai. Enough time had passed for Rei to begin to notice things that had long since faded into background noise for him.

"Furuya-kun?"

Akai's voice cuts into his thoughts. Rei realizes he's been quiet for too long.

"My apologies," Rei says quickly, "I was just thinking about something."

It's possible that Rei may be an idiot.

* * *

An observation record of Akai Shuuichi:

Situation 1: Akai is out drinking at a bar with Agent Starling and some other FBI colleagues of his. This investigator is sitting at a nearby table in disguise.

List of notable behaviours from Akai over the course of forty-five minutes:

\- One (1) outright laugh

\- One (1) chuckle

\- Three (3) wide smiles

\- Eight (8) faint smiles

Notes:

\- Observation was forced to be cut short at the forty-eight minute mark due to being noticed by Akai when this investigator ordered some more food from the waiter. Akai claimed to recognize my voice (even in the loud environment of the bar) and forced me to come drink with him.

\- Although a formal count was not taken, Akai appeared to smile more once this investigator came to drink with him. However, this may be due to the alcohol the subject ingested beginning to take effect.

Situation 2: Akai is out drinking with this investigator alone at the same bar. Location is at the counter rather than a table like last time.

List of notable behaviours from Akai over the course of forty-five minutes:

\- Two (2) outright laughs

\- Three (3) chuckles

\- A considerable number of smiles

Note: Notable behaviours were listed after the fact as the subject would notice if observations were noted during the event. As a result, some behaviours are not as carefully listed due to their higher count.

Conclusion: Akai Shuuichi appears happier when in a more intimate setting as opposed to a group setting.

Corollary conclusion: Agent Starling – Jodie – was actually easy enough to get along with. Prior biases may have previously coloured this investigator's opinion.

* * *

Rei puts his tablet back down onto the table in front of him then sinks his head into his hands.

"What am I doing?" he groans.

* * *

In the end, he calls up Akai to invite him to come over to dinner again. This time he doesn't try to make silly excuses – he says straight-out he wants to have Akai over for dinner.

Akai doesn't refuse.

(He actually sounds a bit happy.)

But when Akai arrives that night, Rei doesn't say anything significant while they're eating, or as they talk while Akai helps him clean up. He doesn't mention anything as they share a bottle of bourbon that Akai had brought – though he still questions whether Akai actually likes bourbon or it's just some kind of passive-aggressive commentary on his part.

No, he doesn't mention anything until Akai has his coat on and is about to leave, because confidence is not anathema to cowardice.

"I'm going to head out," Akai says, smiling a little. He's facing Rei in the front entrance to Rei's apartment, his back to the door. "Thank you for inviting me, Furuya-kun. It was fun."

"No problem," Rei replies, smiling right back. He keeps his smile pasted on his face as he continues, "Hey, Akai?"

"Yes?"

Rei widens his smile and asks, "How long have you liked me?"

Akai's expression goes blank. The noticeable reaction makes Rei feel heady, and his smile softens into something more genuine, more overjoyed.

"I," Akai starts. He swallows, then looks at Rei with a calm gaze and says, "Of course I like you, Furuya-kun. We _are_ friends, are we not?"

"That's not what I meant, Akai," says Rei mildly, taking a step closer. His smile doesn't fade.

Akai looks rather like a man being led to execution, and Rei has to laugh at how utterly _oblivious_ the both of them had been.

"It's been a while now," Akai finally admits, averting his eyes and sounding resigned. Rei is torn between wiping that dejected expression from Akai's face and smugly enjoying the feeling of knowing something Akai doesn't for a bit longer.

In the end, it's his curiosity that wins out. He is and will always be a detective above anything else.

"Oh? A while?" Rei asks.

"Almost a year, I suppose," says Akai, and Rei's eyes widen. Akai still doesn't meet Rei's gaze, so Rei takes the opportunity to take another small step forwards.

"That _is_ quite a while," Rei says, only he's messed up because there's a bit too much happiness in his voice. Akai's face turns to look at Rei but for once in his life, Rei doesn't bother to hide his emotions.

So this was how Furuya Rei really smiled. It felt nice.

"Furuya-kun?" Akai says hesitantly – hopefully? He could never tell with him.

"What's with that expression, Akai?" Rei says, and to his shame he feels positively giddy. His mood still ridiculously high, he continues with a grin, "Obviously I like you too."

Then he laughs, because Akai's frozen in place and still staring at him like Rei's about to reveal the hidden cameras.

So Rei takes the opportunity to lean in just one last bit closer.

* * *

Not _too_ much changes in the next few weeks, despite everything.

They still go out to eat lunch together in the afternoon or go out drinking at night, sometimes with colleagues, sometimes not. Going to each other's apartments for meals is something newer, but still normal enough.

The newest things are really the way Akai sits just a touch closer than socially acceptable when in public, and right up next to him when in private.

And, of course, the way Akai sometimes leans in to press their lips together. The way Rei sometimes reaches out to run his hand through Akai's hair then grip at the back of his neck as he leans in.

It isn't really much of a surprise when they go further.

* * *

Rei wakes up to a warm body pressed next to him and a sound of a ringtone. Blearily, he pushes off Akai's arm sprawled over him and rolls to the edge of the bed, still under the blanket. Eyes falling back closed, he feels around the night table with a hand for the offending cellphone.

His hand lands easily enough on the vibrating cellphone. Gripping it weakly and bringing it to his ear, he accepts the call out of more muscle memory than anything else.

"Furuya here," Rei mumbles.

" _Furuya-san!?_ " a voice exclaims from the phone. It takes a moment for his tired mind to place it.

"Sera-san," mutters Rei, "Why are you calling me so early?"

"…I'm calling my brother," Sera says.

"Oh, okay," says Rei, still feeling sluggish. He rolls back towards Akai and half-sits up, blanket falling off. He shakes Akai with the hand that wasn't holding the phone. "Akai, wake up."

After a bit of effort, Akai cracks an eye open at him. "Rei?"

"Phone," Rei says simply, then shoves the cellphone at him. As soon as Akai takes it, Rei collapses back onto the bed, turned away from Akai.

It's too bright outside to really keep his eyes closed though, so his eyes crack back open in moments. Then his eyes land on _his_ cellphone sitting on the night table and immediately open fully, the panic chasing away most of his lingering sleepiness.

Oh no.

He stays frozen in the bed for a little while, not wanting to make anything worse. None of Akai's quiet talking into the phone really registers, but finally, he hears Akai say a goodbye to his sister. He rolls back around to stare blankly at Akai's back.

"I picked up your phone," he says in horror. " _In bed._ "

"You did," Akai says agreeably. He shuffles around to face Rei, face a little amused.

"Sera-san knows," he says blankly.

"She probably does, yes," Akai says, again agreeably, again not sounding terribly off-put. Rei glares at him.

"Do you not –" Rei tries to snap, but he can't help but yawn midway through. He stubbornly continues, "– care at all!?"

"Why would I?" Akai asks, faintly smiling at Rei. "Masumi won't."

Alright, he did have a point there but – "I wanted to tell her properly, once everything between us seemed more… firm," he admits, sighing. "She's going to be mad at me for keeping quiet after what she asked me."

"Masumi asked you something?" Akai asks curiously. "I know you talked with her, since you told her I would only be here for another couple months," – Rei averts his gaze at the reminder of his pettiness – "but I didn't realize she asked you for something."

"She ah," says Rei awkwardly, "She asked me to help her find someone to get you over your horribly unrequited love for Agent Starling."

Akai laughs, and Rei is conflicted between being annoyed at how amused Akai is or just enjoying the laugh.

"I suppose you succeeded in that," he says with a small smile.

"I _refused_ Sera-san's request," Rei corrects. He settles on being annoyed and glares at Akai.

"Oh? Why would you do that?" asks Akai, giving Rei a curious look.

"Obviously I didn't want to see you with anyone else," Rei mutters.

Akai's smile widens. "And you didn't want to tell Masumi what you actually wanted, I see."

"Of course," says Rei matter-of-factly.

And there was also, of course, that the whole reason Sera wanted to find someone for Akai was that she believed it would keep him in Japan.

Rei had no such delusions, and didn't want to raise Sera's hopes that way by cooperating with her silly plans.

(Now however… he wasn't quite willing to let Akai go so easily.)

"More importantly though," Akai says softly, and at first Rei just blinks in confusion as Akai takes his hand in his. But as Akai brings Rei's hand to his lips to press them against the hand, Rei can't help the flush that rises up. He tries to rip his hand away from Akai in his embarrassment, but Akai's grip is tight.

"What- what do you think you're doing, Akai?" Rei snaps, reluctantly giving up on freeing his hand from Akai's grasp.

Akai's smile widens a little and he presses another kiss to the back of Rei's hand. Rei feels his face redden further.

"You shouldn't say that things aren't firm," Akai chides, "I like you, and you like me, and we're dating. Isn't that firm enough for you?"

Akai's thumb softly traces a circle around the back of Rei's hand. Rei can't help but avert his gaze.

"It's only been a couple weeks," Rei mutters contrarily.

Akai finally lets go of Rei's hand. But before Rei can feel relieved (or disappointed) about it, Akai's hand snakes out to grip the back of his neck and press their lips together into a closed-mouth kiss. Rei's eyes flutter closed despite himself.

After a few moments, Akai's grip loosens and they separate, gazing at each other again.

"We've liked each other a lot longer than that, haven't we?" Akai murmurs, and Rei's flush returns with a vengeance.

"Like you this, like me that," Rei complains, "'Like' isn't a word you should throw around so casually!"

"Is that so? I apologize, Rei-kun," Akai says, and smiles. Rei's eyes narrow because that smile is _definitely_ mocking him. True to his suspicions, Akai continues with, "I suppose I'll have to say that I love you instead."

"That's _worse_ , you damn Westerner," Rei grumbles. He would rather die than admit to the warm feeling spreading in his chest, so he closes his eyes as he says haughtily, "You're supposed to show that with your _actions_ , not by saying it explicitly."

Rei's eyes burst back open when he feels Akai's lips brush against his cheek. He sputters, pushes Akai back, and does his best to force down his blush, because he's been doing that way too much in the past few minutes. He still has some pride.

"What's the matter with doing both?" Akai asks, sounding unruffled despite the unceremonious treatment. In a swift move, too fast for Rei to properly react even if he had wanted to, Akai moves himself on top of Rei. He stares down at him with an expression that makes Rei's breath catch in his throat.

Akai laces their hands together, _smirks,_ then leans in to mouth at Rei's neck. Rei can't help the little sounds that come out of his throat, despite the dull ache he still feels in the lower half of his body.

Still pressed against his neck, Akai murmurs, "I need to brush my teeth and take a shower, and I think you want to too."

Rei lets out a snort at the mundane words in a situation like this, but before he can comment on it, Akai moves to his ear to whisper, "But once we do, I'd be happy to show you with my _actions_ just how much I care for you."

If Rei's hands weren't still being pressed down by Akai's, he would've immediately tried to push Akai back at the embarrassing words. As it is, he just laughs and says in a carefully level voice, "I'm impressed you can say something so embarrassing with no hesitation."

"And I'm impressed you can keep your voice so steady," Akai replies, unabashedly pressing another kiss to his neck.

"Who do you think I a- _ah_ ," Rei trails off into a moan as Akai bites high up his neck – dammit, he was going to have to use concealer to cover something that high up – and lets go of his hands to brush his hands down Rei's body.

His hands now free, Rei forces himself to see through the haze of pleasure and reaches up to grab Akai's shoulders. He pushes him back.

"Shower," Rei says firmly, because his mouth and body felt _horrible_ and if they went any further right now, he would regret it sooner than later.

"Is that an invitation, Rei?" Akai asks, and well, he hadn't actually meant it that way, but then Rei's eyes flicker up and down Akai's body and he realizes he would really prefer not to wait much longer.

"…Yes," Rei decides, and smiles as Akai comes in for another quick kiss.

* * *

It's a couple hours later when a knock sounds on the door. Luckily they've both cleaned up by then – Rei is making himself some coffee in the kitchen while Akai, the last time he checked, is playing around with his phone in the living room.

The kitchen is closer to the door than the living room, but Rei is loath to open the door to Akai's apartment especially after this morning's slip-up, because you probably wouldn't even need to be a detective to deduce that Rei had stayed the night.

"It's probably Masumi," calls out Akai from the living room. "Could you get the door?"

Rei grimaces, because Akai could've at least warned him if he knew that Sera might visit. But regardless, he stops the coffee machine and heads towards the front entrance. He might as well get it over with as soon as possible.

He pastes a cheerful smile on his face as he opens the door. As Akai predicted, Sera stands there. Her arms are crossed and her expression looks unimpressed.

"Furuya-san," Sera says shortly.

"Sera-san!" Rei replies brightly, widening his smile. Sera seems unmoved. "It's great to see you. Come in."

He steps aside and gestures for Sera to come inside. She does, easily enough, but they walk to the living room in silence. Sera stops as soon as they step inside, so Rei stops soon after.

"Hello, Masumi," Akai greets from the sofa. He places his phone down on the table in front of him and smiles at her. She doesn't return the smile.

"Hi, Shuu-nii," she says quietly.

It doesn't seem like Sera is planning to move from her position by the door, so Rei shrugs and walks over to the sofa, sitting himself down next to Akai. He makes sure there's a respectable amount of space between them, but his effort goes to waste as Akai immediately shuffles closer and wraps an arm around his waist.

Rei sighs but doesn't bother to shuffle away.

"How long have you been together?" Sera demands.

"A few weeks," Rei replies immediately at the same time as Akai says, "Twenty-five days."

Rei turns to stare at Akai and asks incredulously, "You've been _counting?_ "

"Of course," Akai says, sounding surprised. He gives Rei a soft smile. "That day is something -"

"- Not in front of Sera-san!" Rei hisses, shoving a hand against Akai's mouth. Once he shuts up, Rei drops the hand.

His attention turns back to Sera when she lets out a loud, amused laugh. Rei notes that much to his relief, she doesn't look as hurt as she did when she first stepped in the apartment.

"So it's only been three weeks," Sera says cheerfully. She walks over to a lounge chair placed across from the sofa and bounces down it. She grins. "Then this wasn't a thing the entire time and you weren't having a laugh at me or something. I'm a bit sad you didn't tell me right away though, Shuu-nii!"

"I wouldn't do that, Sera-san," Rei says, dropping his smile.

"I'm glad." Sera flashes a smile. Then she raises an eyebrow and comments, "You do move fast though…"

"Sorry?" says Rei, smiling amiably.

"Furuya-san, you said before that everyone makes slips, but it's how you recover from them that matters, right?" Sera says, sounding unimpressed. She crosses her arms and leans in. "Well, I think the best way for you to recover this time is to admit everything gracefully." She pauses and lets out a snicker. "Though I think those marks are too blatant to be called a 'slip'…"

Rei slaps a hand against his neck – he had completely forgot about those stupid bitemarks – and glares up at Akai, who smiles back smugly, no shame in his expression. Rei huffs, but well, he was _not_ interested in getting into an argument about this in front of Sera.

(It wasn't as if he hadn't been fully into it during the act, anyways.)

"There's one thing that bothers me though…" Sera says slowly, arms still crossed. "Shuu-nii, I thought you liked Jodie-sensei…"

"Not for years," replies Akai drily, and the hand gripping Rei's waist presses him a little closer. Rei rolls his eyes at the possessive gesture.

"Then why did you say no to Mama?" she asks, frowning, and Rei has to admit he's curious as well.

"You thought that I said no to her because I still had feelings for Jodie?" Akai laughs, actually laughs, and Rei has to stare. "I said no because her attitude pissed me off. Treating it like it was a given that I would agree with whatever she wanted…" Akai clicked his tongue. "How old does she think I am?"

Rei snorts while Sera groans and buries her head in her hands.

"Seriously?" Sera mumbles. She lets out a strangled cry, still not looking up. "Argh, I feel so _stupid_. But you were always so happy talking about work, and you asked me to ask my friends about good places to eat and you went there with Jodie-sensei…"

" _Oh?_ " Rei says, voice sharp. He holds back a smile.

"I went there with you first," Akai responds mildly, looking down at Rei.

"Hm, thought you would at least panic a little," says Rei. The smile he lets himself give Akai is a little too fond, but he can't help it.

"I think I can tell when you're actually mad, Re- Furuya-kun," Akai says, sounding amused, and then he's leaning in a little.

"Wait!" Sera says suddenly, her voice no longer muffled by her head being in her hands. Rei whips his head back towards Sera and hopes in vain she hadn't noticed how close he and Akai had just been.

"Wha- what is it, Sera-san?" Rei asks brightly.

Sera grins. "Shuu-nii, so then you're staying, right?"

"Maybe," Akai says, and the response is wishy-washy enough to warrant a quick glare at Akai before turning back towards Sera.

"Don't worry, Sera-san," says Rei reassuringly. He flashes a confident smile at her. "I'll make sure he'll stay."

"You have my full support," Sera says solemnly before breaking into a smile.

"Furuya-kun, weren't you complaining the other day that I should value my work more?" says Akai in amusement.

"Weren't you saying that I shouldn't say sad things about our relationship this morning?" counters Rei. "Now who's being sad and lonely, _Shuuichi_?"

"…What was that?"

"What was what, Akai?" Rei says innocently. He glances at Sera. "I didn't say anything, did I, Sera-san?"

"Oh, nope, I didn't hear anything," Sera agrees, nodding.

"Though well, I suppose..." Rei says contemplatively. He smirks. "I might remember in a year or so."

"How easy do you think I am, Rei-kun?" asks Akai.

"Not at all," Rei responds, completely truthfully, and laughs.

But he can have confidence things might work out for once either way.

* * *

Here's the real truth. Sometimes Rei isn't a confident person.

He tells himself he is, because telling himself what he feels is something he's done for so long he's not quite sure how to let himself just feel what he wants. And he doesn't really want to. His emotions aren't something he wants out for display for anyone to see.

Rei is, above all, a logical person. And it's so easy to be 'confident' when he can piece together evidence into a logical deduction as easy as breathing.

But sometimes his deductions are wrong.

And sometimes that's a good thing.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **My initial thought process for this fic was a lot hazier than some of my other ones, so there were a lot of ideas that didn't end up being used. I might use some of them for future fics so I won't mention them here though ;) I hope you enjoyed it!**


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